In lite of all the super teams forming and big names forcing their way out. Do these trades ever wind up positive for the team squiring the star?
I’ll define a positive trade for a star as getting to the NBA finals in the next two seasons. Since the ultimate goal is to win a title and these teams are moving all-in, in most cases trading away a lot of future picks/assets.
Off the top of head:
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most successful single season trade lately seems to be Kawhi to the Raptors.
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Lebron and banana boat crew to Miami also. But already championship with Wade and it’s fucking Lebron James, not just an ordinary all star. I guess you could also include AD to the Lakers
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of course there was also KD to the Warriors, but they were already champions. They didn’t need him. And that wasn’t a trade, it was free agency signing. (Although, it seems like in enabled the ability to force your way out or resign early.)
There’s been so many busts:
- All of Harden’s trades
- all of KD’s moves post Warriors
- Beal to the Suns doesn’t look great so far
- Damian Lillard to the Bucks doesn’t look great, when they were championship caliber before.
- Kawhi and PG to the Clippers has been a busy so far
There seems to be too many changes needed to make a star work. Either they have to change their style, or the entire team roles need to be updated to make it work.
What type of situations does it actually make sense to go all-in? A team on the cusp that just needs that one piece, and one that fits their system perfectly.
Jrue Holiday was a great move for the Bucks at the time when everyone said they overpaid and I think we’ll feel the same about Dame eventually. We’re 12 games in and the Bucks are playing overall quite well.
Pau is an obvious W for the Lakers
Chris Paul to the Clippers was a huge win even though they didn’t win a championship. Years of remaining a top competitor in the west, just were rarely healthy.
Anthony Davis???
There’s plenty out there
The Bucks are playing well, but they’ve taken a big step back defensively. I’m not sure that Dame’s offense makes up for losing Jrue’s defense. It’s not like Jrue didn’t already bring good offense.
Trading good offense and elite defense for elite offense and weak defense looks like a bad move to me.
People are remembering the 2-2 start and completely ignoring all the games since then. Bucks are 6-2 since then and 6th in Net Rating. Our “bad offense” is 3rd in ORTG and our “putrid defense” is 10th in DRTG.
Does that mean much? No. But it means more than our first 4 games did.
Expecting immediate perfection is crazy. Of course in April when Milwaukee is buzzsawing through the East this sub will completely change its tune though