In the words of great American Poet, Shad Moss aka Bow Wow "basketball is my favourite sport, I love the way they dribble up and down the court." The NBA is more than just basketball, it’s full of twist and turns, heroes, villains and everything in between, all these make following the NBA as compelling as your favourite TV show. So it’s only right that as I start my weekly column trying to understand what’s happening in the NBA, it has one of it most Dramatic weeks ever.
This week in the NBA, a once in a generation type talent requested that his team trade him, An Elite level talent was traded for wanting to win? And then the best defensive player in the league was snubbed for a position in the All-Star game.
Anthony Davis Requested a Trade from the New Orleans Pelicans
What does this mean?
If you’re familiar with the NBA it’s no secret that the New Orleans pelicans are one of the worst run teams in the NBA, for years and years they’ve failed to build a consistently good team around him. Anthony Davis is tired and he wants to go to a team where he can compete for NBA titles consistently.
How does this affect the NBA?
Rarely does a player of Anthony Davis’ caliber become available in the Trade market, so this situation has turned into an arms race, where the highest bidder tries to pull of a Trade for him before the Trade deadline on February 7 2019. Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Knicks, the Toronto Raptors, the Boston Celtics and The Milwaukee bucks have all expressed interest in trading for Anthony Davis.
Most likely Outcome
There’s only one way this ends and that’s with Anthony Davis being Traded to the Lakers and Though I’m a lakers fan it’s not the reason for this conclusion. Only the Celtics have a Trade package better than the Lakers Trade packager that they can offer the pelicans, but Anthony Davis has made it clear that he doing have plans of being a Celtic, thus leaving the Lakers as the winners Of Anthony Davis and Me a happy man.
The New York Knicks Trade Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks
What does this mean
New York dealt Porzingis along with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee (those are two bad contracts) and Trey Burke to the Dallas Mavericks for point guard Dennis Smith Jr, DeAndre Jordan and Wes Matthews (DeAndre and Wes’ contracts expire this summer), an unprotected first-round pick in 2021, and a top-10-protected first in 2023. All this means the Knicks now have cap space to sign two players to max contracts this summer, and the reading of the tea leaves says that they are doing this with Kevin Durant and Kyrie in mind, both players are going to be free agents in the summer.
How does this affect the NBA?
The Knicks punting on Kristaps might be the first domino to fall in the Warriors dynasty. The Warriors have had their problems this season with Draymond Green and Kevin Durant's public dispute that involved his imminent free agency. If the Knicks are able to land Kevin Durant, the Warriors' reign of dominance is most likely to come to an end.
Breaking up the heir apparent, the Boston Celtics have accumulated draft picks and promising young players and have built a formidable team, led by Kyrie Irving, and are in contention to get Anthony Davis. If the Knicks are able to lure Kyrie Irving away, the Celtics go from a championship contender to just a good team.
Most like Outcome
There are so many ways this might end but at this point in time it seems more and more likely that the Knicks are going to get Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the summer. It could also be that the Knicks for some reason don’t get Kyrie and KD and end up with a player with less pedigree than both and are now stuck in mediocrity for the foreseeable future.
Rudy Gobert not making the All-Star team.
What does this mean
Rudy Gobert is arguably the best the defender in the NBA. He’s the best player on a Utah Jazz Team that is poised to be a power house in the Western Conference. He leads the league in Win shares and it was a lock to be an All-star this year. It came as a surprise to NBA experts that players like Karl Anthony Towns and LaMarcus Aldridge made it over him.
How does this affect the NBA
It doesn’t mean much to whole NBA but it means a lot to Rudy personally as he loses 1 million dollars which he would have earned if he made the all star team. When asked about it Rudy broke into the tears and players in the NBA laughed at him and made jokes about it.
Most likely Outcome
Nothing big would come out of this, Other than back and forth between players and twitter beef, Rudy has already made jokes about Draymond Green in retaliation and I expect more of this for two people in NBA not known for holding their tongues.
Hope you’ve made sense of all the NBA madness? See you next week.
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