![Print](print-icon.png)
![](Text_Increase_Icon.png)
![](Text_Decrease_Icon.png)
What kind of a sports week has it been? Well, the Super Bowl is being played on Sunday and I didn’t realize it until after the NBA trade deadline.
So class, let’s review.
The Golden State Warriors started this season with a roster whose depth would usurp the lack of a mobile big man who could protect the rim and score. So what we had was a gaggle of guys who were OK, and one guy who is one of the best players to ever chew on a mouthpiece.
So, teams would guard the mouthpiece and the other 12 guys would sometimes score and sometimes not.
But wait! There’s the midseason trade deadline and we can fix the problem by getting that elusive mobile big man and unload a passel of OK guys in the process.What happened is, we did say so long to a passel of OK guys but the mobile big man remained MIA. Instead we picked up a good player and questionable teammate in exchange for an OK, a draft pick, and a good player who’s also a good teammate. And plays the same position.
Jimmy Butler is a perennial all-star who should help the Warriors. He’ll be playing the role of Andrew Wiggins, who was shuffled off to Miami with Kyle Anderson and a protected number one draft pick.
Wiggins was loved by coaches and teammates but when it comes to fire and brimstone, he was an ember. Butler, on the other hand has a lot of bulldog in him. He also has just plain dog in him as well. The W’s are hoping for the former.
What they did do — while not addressing their biggest need — was keep the now and the future in tact. Butler at his best provides a third leg to the “last hurrah” trio along with Curry and Green. The bonus is Kuminga, Podziemski, Moody, and Jackson-Davis are still here and should benefit from more minutes. Even Gui Santos, and Quinten Post have flashed moments that allow for some optimism.
The W’s aren’t going far this year, but they didn’t have to sell the farm either. Jimmy Butler can help and others may grow.
It ain’t perfect. But on the whole, it ain’t bad either.
It was that earlier trade this week that still has me scratching my head. As I understand it, a couple of suits sit down in a Dallas coffee shop and after ordering their grande half-caff, Espresso roast, sugar-free vanilla, latte with almond milk, two things happened.
One, the drink order took so long they had to replug the parking meter; and two, they agreed on a trade that sent one of the best players in the league westward halfway across the country, while one of the best “bigs” in the NBA got a one way ticket east.
So now, Luka Doncic will take his “dad bod” to Los Angeles, and Anthony Davis will bring his big-man skills (when he’s not hurt) to Dallas.
This trade came so much out of the blue that even the network information aces, who spend entire seasons with their heads firmly entrenched in the nether regions of every NBA executive, were gob-smacked that anybody could possibly make a move that they hadn’t “earlier reported.”
And yet, seemingly all it took was a helpful barista for Lakers’ General Manager Rob Pelinka, and Mavs GM Nico Harrison to agree on a deal that provided fodder to every sports talk show in America for the entire week.
They’re incensed in Dallas that the team could let go of a 26-year-old super star and take in a 31-year-old big man who spends more time icing his aching knees than he does running on them.
All the while, in Los Angeles the Gucci-clad courtsiders are scampering around looking for a copy of Serbian for Dummies.
I’m guessing that perhaps there was a little something more to the making of this trade than just two old pals looking for stimulating conversation while they waited for their breakfast burritos.
I will preface my comments by saying I have no inside information. I interviewed Anthony Davis once and found him to be a decent sort. Our conversation ended with my thanking him — to his back.
I never did have any business with Luka Doncic. I also have not missed not having any business with Luka Doncic.
But ours is an incestuous business, and if we don’t know someone, generally we know someone who does. The word on Davis is, “quiet, not rude, dedicated to his craft, no real reason to chat him up because he really doesn’t have a lot to say. Also, an iffy relationship with LeBron James.
The word on Doncic is, “extremely confident — to the point of arrogance, doesn’t take care of himself, cocktail hour can sometimes extend considerably beyond 60-minutes, wants the ball — at all times.”
LeBron James has said he was as blindsided by this trade as everyone else. I’m going to take a wild (and unfounded) guess here: He knew about it, and approved it.
In Dallas — once again, unfounded — they decided that being out of shape and living something more than an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ lifestyle would catch up to that 26 year old body that was already starting to expand.
So here’s a non-witness, thoroughly made-up version of what that coffee shop conversation might have gone like:
Nico: “Rob, we’ve got this guy who can really shoot it, but his lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to a long career. He’ll be due a super max extension soon, and I just don’t want to spend zillions of dollars on the Pillsbury Doughboy.”
Rob: “I feel your pain Nico. We’ve got this big guy who spends more time in the training room than he does on the floor. And I don’t think he came to the seder at LeBron’s house either.”
Nico: OK, how ‘bout this: I’ll take the training room guy who can offer a match up problem, and you take the pudgy guy who can shoot. And, I’ll throw in a six-pack .
Rob: It’s a deal! I’ll need you to throw in an extra basketball too. He and LeBron won’t share.”
Makes the Jimmy Butler trade seem rather mundane doesn’t it?