Will This Seasons NBA Trade Deadline Be Like Last Years?

Feb 12, 2014

Don’t play with me, I know what you guys game is. You guys want to get us all hype about all these trade possibilities. You guys like to throw around all these trade rumors, claim all these certain players are on the trade block and then when the highly anticipated trade deadline comes around, nothing goes down. Yeah I’m talking to all you NBA general managers.

If you are like me your actively checking the basketball sites : http://www.hoopsrumors.com/ and http://basketball.realgm.com/ . After reading all the rumors (like me) your head probably explodes because all of the possibilities. The NBA trade deadline is on February 20th, after that no more trades can happen until NBA draft.

The problem I am having with this trade deadline is that I’m afraid it’ll be just like the deadline of last year. Last seasons deadline was just a big tease.  Pretty much nobody made an important move. Last year the two biggest moves came early in the season. Rudy Gay going to the Toronto Raptors and James Harden moving to the Houston Rockets were the biggest blockbusters that went on and they were nowhere near the deadline.

At the deadline all we saw was JJ Reddick and spare pieces go to the Milwaukee Bucks for Tobias Harris and other spare parts to the Orlando Magic, if you take a look at where Reddick plays now and where Harris plays now, you’ll know who won that deal (spoiler: definitely not the Bucks). The only other noteworthy move was the Sacramento Kings giving up on Thomas Robinson (the guy they picked with the number 5 pick in the previous draft) in a 6 player deal with the Houston Rockets. That was another useless deal because only one player out of that entire deal is still on the same team and that is Fransico Garcia (Houston Rockets).

You see how bad last seasons deadline was? It has me afraid, very afraid.

The main reason I’m afraid is because there are countless players on the block but most of these guys have been on the block all season (similar to last season) . The Philadelphia 76ers have been in the trade rumors all year with damn  near every team. Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Thaddius Young have all supposed to been gone by now. Omer Asik was supposed to dealt in December. Kyle Lowry was supposed to be moved right after Rudy Gay but things didn’t go as planned. Even Carmelo Anthony and Zach Randolph have been in the rumors this year. We all knew Pau Gasol would be in a few trade rumors. Also Aaron Afflalo and Greg Monroe has been on the block.

Another reason I’m scared is the league had two pretty big trades come earlier this season, just like last season. Rudy Gay was yet again moved before the deadline this season, going to the Sacramento Kings in a 7 player deal. Then the Cleveland Cavaliers moved Andrew Bynum for Luol Deng. Although neither teams is feeling the benefits from those deals right now, I feel like that deal will mean something one day, since it involved some draft picks.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, draft picks. That’s probably one of the biggest reasons I’m afraid for this deadline. With a really good 2014 NBA Draft Class coming in nobody wants to deal any of there first round draft picks and that is exactly where most deals have died at. This class is supposed to be a special one so nobody wants miss out on a can’t miss player. Also with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement young players on cheap rookie contracts are very valuable.

I really hope some interesting trades go down this year. I’m so afraid we’ll have a repeat of last years weak deals.