Hello stiffs this is my first fanpost in quite some time. I will admit, the trade deadline in the NBA, NHL and MLB has been one ofmy favorite days since I was a youngan. I always had the dream of being the next Peter Forsber or the next big pro athlete like every other kid but I also ha a dream of becoming a General Manager for a pro sports team.
When I was younger I would buy NHL and NBA games not to actually play them, but to play a franchise and be the GM. I would sim all the games, entertaining trade proposals from the comp as well as stacking my team just how I liked it. I just loved the ability to move players as I please and I always enjoyed watching players change teams mid season and watching the impact that the deals had. With that said I will give my personal analysis on some of the bigger deals of the day, and how I think the teams will fare for the rest of the season.
Lets start of with the Lakers. They made two deals today sending out long time Laker Derek Fisher (ouch... dude gives what 17 years to the Lakers and they do him dirty like that? Classy LA.) They also parted with Luke Walton and his cool ethiopian tribe tattoo on his arm, Jason Kapono (didn't even know he was still playing), and two 1st round picks. They bring in Jordan Hill, and Ramon Sessions. Sessions will be a nice starter for LA and should do well for them. I don't see Hill being much of a factor for LA, but I guess he ads length depth to their frontcourt. Personally, I don't think these trades will impact the outcome of the Lakers season very much and I see them landing somewhere in the 4-6 range for the Playoffs. It should be interesting to see what the skilled and streaky Sessions can do with the black mamba.
Next, lets take a look at the Portland deals. It was apparent that Portland was cleaning house, including the firing of Nate McMillan and cutting of Greg Oden. Portland dealt out two starters in Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace in return for youth and hit or miss young players. These players include Johnny Flynn and Hasheem Tahbeet. It is apparent that both of these highly touted players out of college have been nothing but busts so far and the effects of these trades all but eliminate Portland from the playoffs this year. They also added a 1st and 2nd round pick to go along with scrub Shawne Williams and old timer Mehmet Okur. Portland will need to do some serious work in the draft this year or else it could be a while before they are at a playoff level again. Houston wound up with Camby, which should help their front court and I think he is a great compliment to Luis Scola. The real question is does Camby have anything left in the tank? I don't think enough to make a serious impact this year but we will soon find out. Gerald Wallace ended up in New Jersey but im not getting into the East coast teams because they really don't matter to the Nuggets.
Another interesting move was the swapping of two vets between San Antonio and Golden State. Apparently the Warriors weren't ready for a Steven Jackson reunion so they dealt him to the Spurs for the slowly degressing Richard Jefferson. This deal is hard to guage on what the outcome will be. Jefferson was supposed to be the player to help San Anton win a few more championships before the great Tim Duncan hangs em up but he ended up being a complete bust and never really found a way to fit into Pop's system. I don't see him relaly making that big of an impact in Golden State either. Jackson, while I think he is almos to the point of being washed up could be a serious threat for the Spurs. He brings range and veteran scoring for the Spurs. Will he fill the void that Jefferson was supposed to fill? Probably not, but he can't be any worse.
Finally, the biggest deal of the day. Denver sends out longtime friend Nene and recieves the up and coming freakishly athletic 7 footer in JaVale McGee. Washington also dealt Nick Young to the Clippers for essentially nothing. I think this makes LA very scary and will push them into the 2 spot in the west. They had a lot of fire power in LA and adding a player like Nick Young who could compete for 6th man of the year if he weren't on such a bad team in Washington. The Nuggets also added a brand new Tacos player in Ronny Turiaf to accompany Birdman on the bench for the rest of the season. They should end up being best buds.
While it is sad to see Nene go and I think I speak for most of the Stiffs that he will be greatly missed and was loved in Denver, McGee could end up being a dominant center. One of the hardest players to find in the NBA is a dominant center and with McGee's athleticism and youth, I feel very confident in what he will bring to his team. I would like to meantion the dunk contest that McGee particpated in, particularly the two ball dunk on two hoops at once. This demonstrates multiple factors about McGee and his ability. First, his wingspan is unheard of. The fact that he threw that dunk down just blew my mind. Second, it shows his athletic ability. The fact that a 7 footer hung in the air long enough to dunk two balls, one handed with each hand at once shows the incredible athletic ability that JaVale has. Basketball is in his blood. His mother played pro ball and you can tell he has the basketball gene that we all wished we had. Finally, that dunk showed that McGee has incredible coordination. The coordination to throw a dunk down like that is hard to find in players and it leads me to believe that he will have no problem throwin down oops from Ty and Dre.
Not only is McGee is a freak on offense, but he plays the center position like it should be played. I was discussing my opinion of Andre Bogut the other day and how I can't stand the way he plays. I don't like centers who play half their game outside of the paint on offense, and who are weak on defense. That defeats the purpose of a dominant big man down low. McGee plays offense in the paint, and plays physical and intimidating defense as well. He is second in the league in blocked shots and he will really help this team's defense down low, as well as the rebounding problems they have had since "Sex me Mutumbo". This move will allow Faried to take full control of the Power Forward postion, and it makes for the most freakishly athletic frontcourt in the NBA. Combine that with our 6'10 budding allstar in Gallo, out quick point guard in Ty, our deep bench featuring Chandler, Dre, Harrington, Moz, Rudy, Brewer and Kouf, and our glue guy, AAA. This team will be a force to be reconded with and I think they will be very good in the coming years. It may take the rest of this year and an offseason to work out all the kinks, but I love the future of this team.
To sum it up I think the Nuggets won in this deal. Again, it is sad to see Nene go, but it is exciting to see what we have in store with this team. They will be able to run teams out of the gym, and make plays at every position. The other deals were interesting and could have a slight impact this season as well as the future, but I think Denver and the Clips will benifit the most from the deadline deals. This concludes my NN breakdown of the trade deadline. Let me know what you stiffs think about all the deals made today and be ready to watch some very entertaining and athletic basketball. Go Nuggets!!!!!!!!!
