Missed Connections: The Story of the Quietest Trade Deadline Day

[garbageman]

Missed Connections: The Story of the Quietest Trade Deadline Day

It's long been PBSL fact that the trade deadline is not the bastion of activity that the 60 day mark after Sim 3 is. However, between sims 7 and 8, only one measly trade occurred, and it was nothing more than a salary dump...the Suns taking on George Humbert's $10,220,000 contract to fill up the last of their remaining cap space. Still, I was expecting--or more like hoping--to see one interesting, big move.

As a GM with a handle on three teams' trade blocks (my own, the Bulls, and the stewarded 76ers and Kings), I was privy to trade talks for all of those teams. Even with the 76ers putting two blue potential rookie contract players heading into RFA on the block, and even though the Kings had the beefy contracts of Erik Haynes and Donovan Mitchell up for grabs, offers were slim. Nobody even came knocking about Oliver Dennis or Modestine Degrimonpon. Even though the group of stewards would be tight-fisted with the stewarded teams' most valuable assets for the handful of offers that did come in, the response to trade block updates was, shall we say, underwhelming. The biggest headscratcher was that the Kings had $17mm in cap space that nobody came knocking about.

Limbo Lower Now: Pistons and Rockets

These two teams, well into the repeater tax, are an interesting case. The Pistons hustled this season and ended up having to pay someone to take on still blue AD's 52 million dollar contract. After inheriting a team with the budding GOAT, Pistons GM Wombataholic never missed out on the playoffs (and given the Omega conference's openness, he still might not this season). In a post-AD world, though, the Pistons have a bit of bottom-dwelling to do before they can re-enter the contending conversation, and they only have one of their own picks in the next 3 seasons.

However, the Pistons are four year repeaters, and though they will easily be able to duck the tax next year, that's 39 points wasted on a fire sale season like this one. They slimmed down their roster and got close, but a force signing due to injury put them one tier higher than they would've been. If they knocked on some doors to sell a guy like Gregory Payne to a middling team looking to eke into the playoffs, they could have probably earned a few points and made out with a 40+ point opportunity cost profit.

The Rockets, on the other hand, are only three year repeaters, but they are one cut away from ducking under the apron, so my mind is boggled as to why they didn't. They have an 11 man roster and didn't really have to do anything to risk their playoff standing now to get out of repeater status. They didn't have to trade, necessarily, but they should have done something. At 32-26 in the Alpha Conference, they're either going to get the 3rd seed if they can stay atop their division, or fall in the bottom quarter and have to fend off .500 teams to stay afloat.


The Rent Is Too Damn High: Bobcats and Knicks

We have some teams that really broke the bank to try and compete this season...namely in the bloodbath that is division 5, where the Trailblazers and Bulls both started the season with over $200mm rosters (both teams have since cut down to the $180mm range). However, behind them? The Bobcats and the Knicks, who have a combined record of 44-71.

Chad is not a man who is going to make a small tweak here and there. His moves are all or nothing, and his patience is slim. After a training camp that dropped above-average point guard, Christopher Lemke down a few pegs and saw Devin Booker lose a sizeable amount of his jumping ability, the Bobcats were already winding up to tear everything down. A slow start to the season compounded that and led Chad to announce his retirement.

While pieces like Briseno and Booker, at their ages and salaries, might be hard to move, Chad packaged them together and sent them to Denver for the return of 2 Nuggets picks (which never amount to too much), 5 points, and 2 larger salaries on less effective players. It's about the trade you'd expect the Nuggets and the Tray-era Lakers to pull off before Tray went back into Witness Protection. Ideally, Chad doesn't stay discouraged and Ryan sends his ability to quit and rethink his decision in that trade as an added bonus. At 8-14, especially in the Omega Conference, I feel like smaller moves and patience could have righted the ship for the Bobcats and headed them playoff bound--even by way of winning another division title.

However, the damage already done, the Bobcats are living with those Jokic and Duren contracts. They're committed to being bad...even in a division where the leader, at times, has had a losing record. Christopher Lemke to the Kings for minimal salary back could've saved a good 20 points. If they could've moved the D'Angelo Russell contract, that could be even more assets coming back, however, I can't fault them for that because teams that should've been buying might not have really been able to.

As for the Knicks, I would recommend that a team with a losing record shouldn't stand pat when they're 40 million dollars over the cap. They've got a bad Locklear contract, a bad Knecht contract, and a long Bad Donaldson contract...wait, a bad Long Donaldson contract...a bad, long Long Donaldson contract. Teams were selling for just a little bit of cap relief. Locklear, points, and a pick could've gotten them Stephen Keitt and a surefire route to the playoffs. Knecht and Raspberry could've gotten them Erik Haynes or Donovan Mitchell. Instead, inactivity is just getting Doug another lotto pick. What a shame dot gif.


I'm Not Mad, Just Disappointed: Everyone else in Division 2

The Timberwolves, Cavaliers, and Pelicans are all in a pretty similar spot to the Rockets and Nuggets in division 3. Winning their division would give them the 3 seed, not winning their division would put them at the bottom of the table...or perhaps even on the outside looking in. That's not to say that there's a dearth of talent. The Timberwolves have a really nice starting line-up with young players who have developed fast. The Pelicans have a lot of talent on their team. The Cavaliers are better than expected, even if their production is coming from Free Agency holdouts on one year contracts like Long Anderson, the superior Long of PBSL, who's making less over a shorter amount of time than Long Donaldson.

The three teams have respectable players...even some all stars in Domantas Sabonis and Chad Marsh. However, with them as the best players on those rosters (arguably), there is definite room for improvement, and there are definitely players that were available for upgrade. Any one of these teams could have put together a package for a blocked player like Erik Haynes or Stephen Keitt or Damion Williams or Simon Pheonix or even an expensive Wizard that would've all but locked up the division title for one of them. It might cost some future picks, and these teams might not have a deep pool of up and comers to choose from, but I really would've liked to see one of these teams try to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division instead of holding pat and hoping that they end up taking division 3 with an average record.


In Pickless Pickles: Pacers and Mavericks

Neither the Indiana Pacers nor the Dallas Mavericks have their picks next year. In that situation, you shouldn't always try to trade your way into the playoffs to spite Andy, but you should try to do so when it doesn't make sense not to. Neither team is in over their heads on the tax, and at deadline, both were under the apron (the Pacers were, as usual, even under the cap). There was wiggle room to improve.

Also, neither team has a strong enough foundation of promising young talent or picks that I'd consider a good rebuild. What they both have are some decent future assets and mediocre players on mid-sized contracts. The Pacers are right on the playoff cusp, and the only max contract they have is James Gebhart, who is at the end of his competitive viability. But David Lassiter, John Vines, Michael Williams, Victor Newman, and Julian Muldrow are all above average players making average money. They've got too many guys like that. They'd do better to lose some of them for a better player making better money. It doesn't make sense to have 3 slightly above average centers (Hell, John Vines can't even stay in games for more than 20 minutes). If the Knicks weren't going to make a move, the Pacers should have. They still might make the playoffs, but at this point its a coin flip.

The Mavericks are a little further behind. They lost two valuable picks to the Magic for Trae Young, and then they lost Trae Young to a higher bidder in free agency. Now they're resigned to their fate, even though they have several 8-15 million dollar contracts they could pair with a Royal or a Rickly to improve their standing. Still both teams seem solidly resigned to their fates and have not made any moves since assembling their rosters. That's a great recipe for wanting to be stuck in the middle. When you're there, you generally want to move to go in one direction or the other. If they're not ready to decide to do that this year, it might be time to go back to the ol' drawing board.

[garbageman]

+6 points, 1661 words