I had high
hopes for the Orlando front office, I really did. They had a new young General Manager in Rob
Hennigan who seemed destined to follow in the Spurs/Thunder model of building a
basketball team that he came from and had an opportune moment to build the
future of his team. Instead they just
agreed to an astronomically awful trade that improved 3 teams substantially
without getting anything substantive in return.
Now a look at what this 4 team trade means to every team involved:
Denver Nuggets
Acquired:
Andre Iguodala
Gave Up:
Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington, and a protected 1st round pick, 2013 2nd
round pick
This trade
illustrates the simple difference between a well-run franchise, like the
Nuggets, and a poorly run franchise like the Orlando Magic. The Nuggets were in a position where they
were going to lose their best player, Carmelo Anthony, to free agency, who was
an inferior player to Howard and had greater ability to dictate where he wanted
to go, and came out a better team for it.
The Nuggets were able to get legitimate assets and contributors that
could help build the team for the present and future. Now the Nuggets in my opinion with this trade
for Igoudala becomes the 4th best team in the Western Conference and
a team I think could actually win the title.
They gave up what will be a low first round pick, a decent aging player
in Harrington and an overpaid shooting guard to get the best perimeter defender
in the NBA. This team is now offensively
and defensively well suited to matchup with multiple teams and I really like
the direction the franchise is going.
Philadelphia 76ers
Acquired:
Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson
Gave Up:
Andre Iguodala, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and a 2015 protected first round
pick
Look I think
that this offseason as a whole the 76ers made a lot of mistakes, mainly decided
to amnesty a quality player, Elton Brand, who while overpaid had a year left on
his deal and use the cap space to sign KWAME BROWN! However this trade is a
real steal for the 76ers and with a couple of good moves they could become real
contenders in the West. This is because
they were able to acquire the one thing that the Heat can’t matchup with, a
dominant center, which they acquired in Andrew Bynum. The risk of course is that he leaves, but
personally I find that unlikely he seems less enamored with where he is playing
but how much he is making and how the team is built.
Los Angeles Lakers
Acquired:
Dwight Howard, Earl Clark, Chris Duhon
Gave Up:
Andrew Bynum, 2017 protected 1st round pick
This trade
was about as easy can be for the Lakers,
for them the trade basically works as a straight up Bynum for Howard deal with
some extra salary thrown in. This is an
amazing trade for the Lakers that were able to turn getting the Chris Paul
trade rejected and a horrible trade of Lamar Odom into having Kobe Bryant,
Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard on one team. While the pieces might not fit together
entirely this team stands as the favorite in the West ahead of San Antonio and
Oklahoma City and possibly even co-title favorite with Miami.
Orlando Magic
Acquired:
Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and 3 protected
first round picks
Gave Up: Dwight
Howard, Earl Clark, and Chris Duhon
I don’t
understand any reasoning behind this trade from the Magic perspective. You have the best center in the world on your
books for a year and the best you can do is get Aaron Afflalo and some low
first round picks… this has to be a joke.
Seriously this makes all of the Chris Paul trades that were discussed
seems like fair deals where both sides were being compensated fairly
equally. Really if you believe this is
the absolute best you can get for Dwight Howard then I’m not sure I do a deal
at all. Personally I think one year of
Dwight Howard a player who can individually give the defending champions more
trouble than any other player in the league is worth more than what they
got. Really I would try to win a title
this year with Dwight and if he leaves after this year so be it, are you going
to be in a better position then you are because of this trade I don’t think
so. What really doesn’t make sense to me
is that if Bynum was available why not trade for him. Look I think if Bynum ends up in Orlando then
he signs there long-term and you have a star to replace Dwight Howard. He was probably just acting like he wouldn’t
because his ideal situation is to stay in Los Angeles and he wanted to make it
hard for the Lakers to trade him. Are you
telling me that Houston with its array of young talent and draft picks really
wasn’t making a better offer than this for Dwight Howard?! They had built there team around Howard, and he had promised not to stay there long-term. The Nets even with Brook Lopez to offer would look a little bit better. The Clippers had Blake to offer in a deal, like really come on how was this the best offer out there for Dwight Howard. I am just angry right now. The trade just makes me angry as a basketball
fan and a fan of sports in general. If
any trade should be rejected for “basketball reasons” it was this one and to me
while he was only just begun his job agreeing to this trade is a fireable
offense for Mr. Hennigan. The lesson if you are Houston no matter what you do right you will get screwed and if you are the Lakers no matter what you do you will get the best Center in basketball.
Stay Hungry My Friends
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