Nearly every season it’s the same deal. Very little trade action from opening night through to the trade deadline (usually in mid February, this year it’s March 15).
Then it happens. As the deadline approaches, a large number of trades go off, especially hours before the deadline.
This is often due to several major dominoes – Dwight Howard will be the biggest one this season should he get traded – being knocked over, allowing the rest to tumble.
Many teams will not want to make a move until that first domino tumbles for a variety of reasons, each major move potentially changes the landscape of the league.
Once it does tumble, however, the floodgates are opened and it’s on for young and old.
So as we sit through the calm before the storm, let’s take a look at five players who have featured extremely heavily in trade chatter this season so far.
Boston has been interested in trading Rajon Rondo, arguably their best player, since the offseason. Well before the first Spalding was tossed into in the air on opening night, Celtics GM Danny Ainge was pursuing multiple Chris Paul for Rajon Rondo trade scenarios.
Sure, wanting to upgrade Rondo with Paul if the chance is there is understandable, but Ainge’s determination to move Rondo doesn’t seem to have died off. This mentality is a little hard to understand.
Firstly, despite Rondo’s wonky J, there are only a handful of better point guards on the planet.
Secondly, if they do trade Rondo it surely must be for another point guard. If it isn’t, Avery Bradley or Keyon Dooling will be starting at point guard.
Bradley is a promising young player and Dooling is okay, but a foolish trade resulting in the starting point guard going from Rondo to one of those guys would have Larry Bird rolling in his grave.
If he wasn’t running the Indiana Pacers. And alive.
Ainge is known as the most fearless GM in the NBA. In 2008 his fearlessness resulted in an instant championship. Last season it resulted in the Perkins/Jeff Green trade disaster.
Whether Ainge trades Rondo is yet to be seen, but the interest sure seems to be there.
Pau Gasol was involved in the nixed Chris Paul trade prior to the season and has been rumoured in several trades since. Houston has been the team most eager to acquire to his services.
Lakers management are said to be highly reluctant to part ways with Bynum due to his tremendous upside (despite his injury riddled past) but view Gasol as tradeable.
It would appear that Bryant and Bynum are the only players off limits.
With Derek Fisher ageing and unable to guard most of the point guards in the league these days, the Lakers need a young, high quality starting point guard.
Fisher is a five time champion and one of the truly great guys of the NBA. However, father time catches up with us all.
LA is desperate to make a move, if not several, and if it means shipping Pau out of southern California then so be it. Well those are the sounds being reported from the Lakers side of Staples Centre anyway.
Ideally LA would keep Gasol, arguably the game’s most skilful big man, while adding depth to their bench which produces the least amount of points in the entire league. Gasol is one of the few current Lakers skilled enough and playing well enough to stay in the purple and gold.
However, with Bryant and Bynum off limits and the talent falling off dramatically after that, Pau might be their only chance to bring in significant talent to fill their dire needs at point guard, or on the bench if they end up signing Gilbert Arenas as a free agent.
There aren’t many folks who believe Dwight Howard will be wearing Orlando blue next year. Even the poor souls in Orlando must feel as though it’s unlikely.
Much like ‘Melodrama’ last year, Dwight Howard trade rumours and discussion have been running wild since before the season started. Most punters have been tipping Dwight to follow the ‘Shaq route’ from Orlando to LA, while others have him wearing a new jersey in New Jersey.
Dwight himself asked for a trade, then retracted it, then confused the public some more. Regardless of Dwight’s back flips and other strange comments in the media, most folks remain certain he wants out.
The baffling thing is, Dwight is said to have little interest in joining Kobe in LA or former MVP Derrick Rose in Chicago. He’s understood to want to play in a big market, and obviously wants to win.
Both teams offer both. But Dwight’s not having a bar of it.
Why? Who knows.
With the Lakers and Bulls crossed off the shortlist, not many teams are left. Practically all that’s left is the New Jersey (soon to be Brookyln) Nets.
The Nets roster is currently a mess outside of Deron Williams, who has one foot out of the door unless Dwight arrives in town.
The Nets may be able to attract more talent if they have Williams and Howard to build around but, for Howard, it’s a far more uncertain and less ideal situation than LA or Chicago.
While Orlando has had its problems, they sit at a record of 20-12, good for fourth in the East behind only Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Dwight’s not on a bad team, but at the same they won’t get past the second round of the playoffs.
While I can understand his frustrations with Orlando being unable to play well enough reach the finals again, there are very few teams who are better than Orlando, play in a bigger market, and can make a trade good enough to get Howard.
He really cannot afford to cross two of the major suitors in Chicago and LA off of his list.
Chris Kaman was acquired by the New Orleans Hornets as one of the four assets they received in return from the LA Clippers in exchange for Chris Paul. While Kaman has proven himself to be a more than serviceable big man, his true value comes in the form of his large, expiring contract.
The rebuilding Hornets are eager to deal Kaman, looking to use him to acquire additional young talent as well as clearing him from their books. There are several playoff ready teams who could really use Kaman including Houston and Indiana. Miami are also said to be interested.
On January 28 2012 New Orleans announced that Kaman would not take any further part in games or practices as GM Dell Demps searched for a suitable trade. This was a wise move by Demps, the last thing he wanted was Kaman going down with an injury and scaring off all interested trade partners.
Complications in trading Kaman arose; he was not traded and rejoined the team several weeks later, where he’s still plying his trade today. Many issues arose for the Hornets when trying to deal Kaman.
One was that a part of the new collective bargaining agreement means that Kaman could not be packaged with any other Hornets player and would have to be swapped for another player straight up. This drastically limited the Hornets options in trading him.
Additionally, NBA general managers tend to become much more desperate to make a move as the trade deadline nears. Hence, holding on to Kaman until close to the deadline will likely boost the Hornets leverage over other teams who want him and increase what they get back in return.
In this current age of NBA stars, lead by Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony, who hold their teams hostage and flock to the bigger markets, Steve Nash has flown in the face of all of it.
Many have been on the #FreeSteveNash campaign trail on Twitter, hoping he’ll be traded to a contender and be given a chance to win a championship before his birth certificate collects any more dust.
Nash has stated that he is a loyal man and will honour the contract which he signed with the Phoenix Suns. The contract is set to expire at the end of this season.
Nash is old school.
He still lives in the era where if you look a man in the eye and shake his hand, that’s it: deal sealed.
The Canadian point god has made it clear that demanding a trade simply isn’t what he’s about or who he is as a person.
The Suns management have been reluctant to trade Nash as they’re well aware that these days, Nash is the only reason to buy tickets to watch the ailing Suns play.
Plus one just gets the feeling they can’t bring themselves to actually pull the trigger and make that trade and would perhaps even rather see him walk at years end.
Ultimately, they’ll have to decide which hurts more, pulling the trigger themselves and shipping Nash elsewhere, or losing him for nothing in the offseason.
It’s hard to know what’s going to happen in mid-March, but what I do know is this – there’s a trade storm coming.
You might want to hold off from purchasing any jerseys in the meantime.
Especially the jerseys of these five gentlemen.
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