I'm just going to do the deadline day salary trades that weren't pure salary dumps or trades I was involved in or the utter disaster that was Spurs/Bobcats. Actually, Frye it, I'll probably do that one too because it's so funny to me.
Nuggets/Celtics
Celtics send:
Britney Griner
Nuggets Send:
Charles Jarrett
William Lindsey
Anas Mahmoud
5 points
2062 1st round
The Nuggets are competing and the Celtics aren't so the math on this is pretty simple. For the Nuggets, William Lindsey is out all season with a broken leg, Charles Jarrett wasn't productive as a blue/blue, so it gets him out of that contract (even though he was probably playing better as a g/g), and they give up 5 points and a 2062 1st round for a relatively young b/b Britney Griner. Griner's probably going to be a rental as she's not max-worthy, so I like that the Nuggets didn't give up too much to get her. It'll all come down to that 2062 1st round pick, which...given the Nuggets tax situation, might pay off in droves for the Celtics unless the Nuggets can duck out of the tax next year and then retool quick. I like this alright for both teams, but we won't know the value for a while, so I can't give it too exciting of a grade for either team. With Andrew Patrick going down for a couple months for the Nuggets, it's a gamble that paid off nicely for Denver already.
Grades: solid B for both teams
Suns/Grizzlies
Grizzlies send
Victor Wembanyama
Suns send
Jonathan Kuminga
Markus Barnes
Chris Jackson
Kyle Kuric
Clarence Martin
7 points
Fresh off an all star start, the Suns upgrade their C for a mere 7 points, also known as all of the Suns points they had left after getting a payday loan from the Media Coordinator. K-100 is kind of a wildcard in that he'll entertain pretty much any type of deal, but unlike the other wildcards in the league, he generally knows what he's doing and will be a massively winning team when he wants to. I like that K didn't let an auspicious start divert him from his plan. I'm not huge on Kuminga and the return isn't outstanding for him, but it isn't bad either, especially in a landscape where new guys aren't taking big swings and the market for a 72mm man like Wemby is pretty slim. Still, the Suns were the right buyer. A team with 3 purple pot wings needs to solidify it's bookends at PG and C, and while Ridenhouer is far from the ideal starting PG for a team of this caliber, Wemby is exactly the type of big the Suns should've been targeting.
Grades: Grizzlies get a B, Suns get an A
Cavs/Lakers/Pelicans
Lakers send:
Gregory Kozak (Cavs)
Cavs send:
Nemesio Cervantes (Lakers)
Nicholas Zike (Lakers)
James Northrup (Lakers)
Waka Mbatch (Lakers)
2062 Cleveland 1st round pick (Lakers)
David Douglas (Pelicans)
Logan Gilley (Pelicans)
5 points (Lakers)
3 points (Pelicans)
Pelicans send:
2062 2nd round pick (Lakers)
There's a part of me that loves 3 and 4 team trades because it allows teams to get real creative, but another part of me sees bullshit like this and is like ah, jeez, what the Frye? Pelicans take on some salary for 3 points and get some green guys, Lakers send out Kozak, and Cavaliers send everyone on their team not named Vassell or Isaac (or Lidell) somewhere else. Like, I don't give a rat's ass about any of these guys. There are some green potential guys the Lakers will probably train into blue potential guys. I do like the Cavs consolidating their roster and getting a true starting C out of it. And I like the Lakers getting rid of Kozak for some scratch-offs that could hit in Nemesio, Waka, and a 2062 pick (and points). It's probably the best that the Lakers could get for Kozak, even if they waited until the offseason. But it's really kind of a pupu platter, so I can't give LAL full marks.
Grades:
Lakers: B+
Cavaliers: A-
Pelicans: DNQ
Magic/Heat
Magic send: Johnny Davis & 10 Points
Bank: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12495&p=104418&sid ... 5d#p104418
For
Heat send: Antonio Bleakney & DeJuan Baker.
I will never understand Nick and why he does the things he does. After going out to get Ware in a deal that would've gotten him an A and given the Bucks a very lenient C-, he first does a specious swap with the Pelicans, trading Banchero and 10 points for Dwain Ramos and Ayo's bad contract. I can see him wanting to get cheaper than Banchero and maybe he considers Ayo a better depth piece than he had, but the Pelicans were desperate to get rid of Ayo, and I'm not clear that going from Banchero to Dwain Ramos is any more than a break even proposition. 10 points aside I guess that's a fair, albeit unspectacular, trade. But then this trade hits: The Baker contract is worse than Ayo's (and arguably JD's in terms of bang for the buck), and Johnny Davis is an excellent player. I don't know what business the Heat have wanting him, but it's too good a deal for them not to pass up (and I'm glad to see that the Heat/Timberwolves deal for Baker got shot down because the Wolves were taking on 3 years of bad contract for absolutely nothing). Hell, getting out of that Baker contract and getting 10 points for it is a coup. I know the JD contract probably looks scarier as he ages, but when I look at all the moves the Magic have made this season, or any season, there doesn't seem to be much logic in place other than the love of the trade. I saw a proposal to get rid of the 60 day trade limit, which would ruin multiple lives: Nick would be furiously trading 24/7, alienating his family, his job responsibilities, living in an insomniac fugue state, and Nate would probably go quickly insane for having to process trades every minute unless the 25 other GMs became co-commissioners to handle the new workload.
Grades:
Magic: D
Heat: A
Spurs/Pistons
Pistons send:
Stan Van Gundy
3pts (Paid: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12067&p=113192#p113192)
Spurs send:
PeeWee Kirkland
Everyone saw this one coming, and everyone feared it, and some people came up with justifications why it wouldn't or shouldn't happen, but really, I think it was the only thing that made sense at this stage in the game. There were roads for the Spurs to keep Pee Wee, although like this trade, the roads would probably lead back to tax jail because of severe funds mismanagement and the stubborn-ness to nip that in the bud any sooner than the last minute. But the Spurs do get a purple potential player (albeit one who isn't as purple) and the Pistons get much more repeat security as Pee Wee is much more than a 3 point upgrade over SVG. But that's what it comes to, folks, and half the GMs in the league probably are conditioned to get inappropriate compulsive boners if they even see the color purple while walking in public, living their every day lives. Meanwhile, Newland and Percy Miller are one training away from purple on a team without the points to make them purple. It's a real gift of the magi situation here folks.
Anyway, does this move mean Doug will win the championship again? Probably. Would he have won the championship again anyway? Probably. But the Pistons were 42-4 pre-pee-wee and are 6-3 with him. Can they be beat? I think so. They're the strongest team, but they're not the deepest team, and even though a lot of the league felt like this was coming, a lot of competing teams still doubled down, and that was nice to see. Should the Pistons worry about the 6-3 start with Pee Wee? No, not at all. This was the move anyone with an ounce of desire to win another ring would have made in their shoes. For the Spurs, it was probably the best they were going to do at this point, but they could have probably done better for their own future if they had made more responsible moves in the past.
Grades:
Pistons: A+
Spurs: B+
Bobcats/Spurs
It's a shame that this one didn't work out because 10 points for Widener would've been a triumph for James. Unfortunately, this deal got incredibly bungled, and despite a warning from the commissioner, this trade wasn't fixed in time. Maybe this deal still goes down in the offseason, or maybe Carlos backs out or finds another buyer. The silver lining is that the Bobcats aren't any worse off than they were before, but the Spurs probably would've saved 9 tax points on top of the tenner they would've gotten from the Cats. it's still one of those things where if even one of the GMs involved knew how the rules worked OR was paying attention, it could've gone through. C'est la vie.
Bobcats: D
Spurs: D