Another NBA trade deadline has come and went and the hype once again vastly exceeded what actually happened. For days and weeks, big names have been floated about being on the market or possibly on the move: Dwight Howard of Houston, Al Horford and Jeff Teague in Atlanta, Pau Gasol in Chicago, Blake Griffin of the Clippers, Joe Johnson of the Nets, and Ricky Rubio of the Timberwolves to name a few. Any of those players being traded would have been seismic. (Yes, even Rubio.)
None of them moved. And the draft-pick-happy Boston Celtics, desperate to move David Lee and create some cap room for this summer, did nothing.
Another letdown.
But Channing Frye went to Cleveland! A 32-year old power forward who shot 3-pointers very well in Phoenix in 2010, and still has good touch from deep. Cleveland couldn’t get (or got scared off by) Markieff Morris, so they settled for Frye as a possible ‘big’ to play against Draymond Green for spurts in the NBA Finals. (Morris was traded to the desperate Wizards, who aren’t even a playoff team right now. But Morris is a few states closer to his brother, so maybe he’ll fall in line.)
Frye doesn’t rebound like Tristan Thompson, but he’s actually a threat on the perimeter, whereas Thompson isn’t.
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Randy Foyegot shipped from Denver to Oklahoma City! The Thunder got a taste of the guard-heavy attack they’ll need against the Warriors in the Finals on Super Bowl Saturday. OKC looked scary with Adams/Ibaka/Kanter at center, Kevin Durant at power forward, and three guards.
Will Foye be an upgrade over Anthony Morrow or rookie Cameron Payne? Maybe they’ll find out over the final 30 games. Or Foye will be injury insurance. (Also, OKC saves $9.8 million with the move.)
Either way, when those are the two big moves – some teams cleared cap room, and that could be important come July; Kirk Hinrich got traded to the Hawks; Lance Stephenson to the Grizzlies – the trade deadline sucked.
Thank goodness there are actually games tonight.
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from The Big Lead http://ift.tt/20Hd1uN
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