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Dion Waiters, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert Fantasy Trade Analysis

By Dave Fuqua

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Sometime shortly after 7 p.m. EST Monday night, after fantasy lineups and daily fantasy lineups locked, the New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers set the NBA and Twitter on absolute fire with the news of a trade. Now it is our pleasure to bring you some of the best fantasy trade analysis available. This trade will send Dion Waiters to the Thunder with J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert heading to Cleveland. The Knicks will receive Lance Thomas and a future protected first round pick. The rest of the players will all wind up on waivers as New York takes the tank mode route and dumps salary. Some of those guys may have some deep league waves, and we will keep an eye on that for you too.

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As far as trying to figure out how this is going to play out fantasy wise, I expect it to be very muddy, not to mention unclear and ugly. I really don’t understand this trade for anyone except the Knicks who are clearly dumping salary, and oh by the way, planning to sit Carmelo Anthony out long-term.

Dion Waiters was a once-heralded prospect as he entered the 2012 NBA draft and was picked 4th by the Cavs. He has yet to really live up to his hype. Now the Cavs send him packing after many disagreements with ownership and even a supposed rift with Kyrie Irving. I don’t really understand why you trade away one person causing problems for another person who has had problems that seem to follow him everywhere in J.R. Smith, but maybe the addition of Shumpert too was enough to sway the Cavs to pull this trigger. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for the troubled players involved in this trade.

Cleveland did reportedly ask LeBron James if he was okay with acquiring J.R. Smith. That is clearly the move of a franchise trying to appease the golden boy. Apparently the King of Cleveland was okay with this, so maybe Smith will come around if he knows that he is wanted. You never really knew where you stood with the Knicks as a player. That could be part of Smith’s problems in the Big Apple.

Now we to try to analyze just what is going to happen with these guys and who, if anyone, you should rush to the waiver wire and pick up. As of right now, I don’t see anyone who’s needle will be taking off and pointing straight up as a result of this trade. If I was to buy into anyone as of right now, it might be Iman Shumpert. I suspect his defense was what the Cavs were after, and he could possibly play a consistent Tony Allen type of role for them. I guess if I was in a deep enough league and had some trash lying around that I could cut, I could be persuaded to give J.R. Smith a flier. I do think Smith will see plenty of minutes, but when Shumpert gets to full health, it could put a dent in both players’ value. We could also see either of the duo dealt as the Cavs are still searching for a center with Anderson Varejao out.

For deep leaguers, you can take a flier with Lance Thomas as he will likely find a spot in the rotation in New York, and could see larger minutes if they really do shut down Carmelo. He is a player to put on your watch list, as I would only recommend adding him in 16 team and larger leagues.

My best advice that I will throw out is for you to be actively watching the box scores and the minutes distributions once all the players arrive in their new home. Then you can prepare to react accordingly.

Next: Should I Add John Henson?

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