Tuesday was the kind of day that you expect from the NBA trade deadline, except it happened two days early. Who knows what other madness is in store for us today and tomorrow?
Dame Lillard seems to have lost all his teammates and the Kings seem to have lost their minds. And we haven’t even seen the Ben Simmons situation get resolved yet.
Here’s a small sampling of the SBNation trade grades from yesterday.
Sabonis is a young and productive big man on a below market contract that will pay him $20 million next season and $21 million in 2023-24. It’s difficult to find an All-Star caliber player on a more team-friendly deal, rookie contracts aside. There’s no doubt he’s a major talent upgrade in the front court for Sacramento. This deal still unfortunately reeks of the Kings making another shortsighted move yet again.
It’s easy to view McCollum as a bit overrated because he’s a defensive liability in the backcourt who isn’t an elite playmaker and doesn’t consistently get to the rim. I can see the vision for New Orleans here, though. The Pelicans need shooters next to Williamson once he returns, and McCollum is a major talent upgrade over anything else they had in the backcourt. He’s expensive for the next two years, but this is a decent gamble to maximize the team while Williamson is still on his rookie contract.
What’s going to happen next? Just stay tuned and find out! (and follow along in the comments below)
