The trade:
Boston: Butler, Noel, Covington
Chicago: Okafor, Brown, 2017 Boston/Brooklyn swap pick, 2019 Memphis pick
Philly: Bradley, Zeller, Rozier, 2019 Clippers pick
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=gp3m6fwWhy Boston does it:
While the thought of adding a Fultz or Ball to this team is nice, I've become more and more convinced that we are set for a long time at the PG position with IT and Smart. Though neither of them are perfect players, they've both proven that they significantly impact winning even while being a bad defender (IT) and a bad shooter (Smart). Trading Bradley in this scenario also helps us be able to retain both of these guys next year, too.
And while losing Brown would hurt, we can only hope that he'll ever be as good as Butler is now. Butler provides us with that secondary (clutch) scorer behind IT, and he also gives us much more size in the starting lineup, along with elite perimeter D. Noel gives us elite all around D in his shot blocking and perimeter defense, along with a more natural fit alongside Horford. Finally, Covington is the perfect complement to the bench with his 3 and D style and would fit ideally with Smart, Green, KO, JJ, and Amir. This lineup would be a real threat to dethrone Cleveland and win it all:
PG: IT, Smart
SG: Butler, Green
SF: Crowder, Covington
PF: Horford, KO/JJ
C: Noel, Amir
No team is going to want to face an 8 man playoff rotation of IT, Butler, Crowder, Horford, Noel, Smart, Covington, and Noel. And this isn't even mentioning our small ball units we can throw out there (IT, Smart, Butler, Crowder, Horford) or our defensive units (Smart, Butler, Covington, Crowder, Noel) or our offensive/shooting units (IT, Green, Crowder, KO, Horford). This is an excellent two-way team that has a TON of versatility, which is the exact type of team that Brad can take to the championship.
Why Chicago does it:
They're an ill-fitting, mediocre team that is merely first round fodder; the coach is on the hot seat; the locker room is a mess; management dislikes Jimmy Butler and vice versa; Wade is set to opt out in the summer and go elsewhere; and the management was just reassured that they'll be retained this summer no matter what route they go.
All of this points to the inevitable divorce of Butler and the Bulls. Right now there's been reports of a ridiculous asking price of both Brooklyn picks and two of Jaylen, Bradley, Crowder, and Smart. But everyone knows this is unrealistic, and the price will naturally come down significantly around the deadline or when teams start getting serious in their talks. They've also recently engaged the Sixers in trade talks for Okafor, who they covet, and it's known that they have interest in Jaylen and the 2017 Brooklyn pick, or at least have interest in them. This trade would give them two star-level prospects (more so Jaylen than Okafor), a draft pick that will most likely get them another star-level player, and another potential lottery pick in 2019. That's a good haul for Jimmy, who they don't necessarily want to build around anyways.
Why Philly does it:
They're actively trying to trade Okafor right now, and Noel has been on the block for basically this whole year. They really have no use for either of them with Embiid, Holmes, and their other bigs, and they really want to get some value back for them before Noel gets priced out of their range this summer and Okafor becomes untradable from hardly being used or being used out improperly off of Philly's bench.
Bradley, Rozier, and the Clips pick represents about as good of value as they're going to get from either of these two at the moment. Bradley is about as perfect of a fit for them as possible, and they can extend him this summer with cap space to lock him up long term. And at their range of the draft they're probably looking at someone like Dennis Smith Jr., who would seemingly be a pretty terrific fit next to Bradley in the backcourt. Having Bradley also gives them more flexibility in the draft, because they can pick up a wing like Jackson if they feel he is the best player available when they're picking, which would still fill a need for them and not leave them with a barren backcourt.
To me, this is a pretty fair, well-rounded deal that gets each team something they want at a pretty good price. So what do you think?
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Topic: Trade Idea: Boston/Chicago/Philly (Read 2499 times)