Best of YB: The state of the NBA following the trade deadline
The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, and while there wasn't a ton of movement on Thursday itself, the Philadelphia 76ers finally unloaded one of their young bigs by trading Nerlens Noel to the Dallas Mavericks while the Oklahoma City Thunder beefed up its roster.
Big names like Jimmy Butler, Paul George, and reportedly disgruntled Knicks stars Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose stayed put, but none of that can offset the bombshell of the Sacramento Kings trading DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans to kick off the week.
That got us wondering, did the Kings just make the Pelicans into a super team? After all, New Orleans now has two of the best players John Calipari has ever coached at Kentucky.
Other than the Pelicans, who else won and lost the NBA trade deadline? We took our hand at grading the NBA trade deadline on the Vince Carter scale: "Celtics fans have been hoping, praying and BEGGING for Danny Ainge to make something of the multiple first round draft picks the team owns, yet he stood pat because of his professed belief that this team had enough to make a deep playoff run."
Like the Celtics, two conspicuous teams failed to do much for their rosters this week. I'm talking the two-time defending Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors and reigning NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
We did our best to poach “playmakers” in Ice Cube's league who can help the Cavs: "I'm going with Stephen Jackson. He's still tough, he can still shoot threes, his headbands are almost as big as LeBron's and if there's a gunfight in a strip club parking lot during the playoffs, he'll really be useful."
As for the Warriors, they already got their prize in the offseason, signing Kevin Durant. Oh yeah, they also have two pretty darn good shooters on their team who make the aesthetic of pushing the boundaries of the three-pointer look so easy: "Stephen Curry, the Warriors' two-time MVP, has set some shooting records that feel untouchable to just about anyone but Stephen Curry. Yet, it’s Klay Thompson whose jump shot is bordering Walter White levels of purity, and watching his form has all of the addictive qualities of Blue Sky."
Uncoincidentally, the Golden State backcourt were popular in our discussion of the guard tandems you'd want in a 2-on-2 tournament: "Curry/Thompson would shoot threes and run through that tournament in a very annoying fashion, especially if they were playing Make It, Take It rules."
While NBA rosters are now mostly set in stone for the remainder of the season, there's another trade deadline looming. As NHL trade deadline nears, here seven teams who could be dealing: "Literally, every big name player in the rumor mill has been connected to Toronto."
Finally, with the Oscars slated for Sunday night, we leave you with the 'Pete Rose instead of Kareem? Surely, you can't be serious' quiz after the writers of the film "Airplane!" admitted the role Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played was originally intended for Pete Rose. Really.
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