NBA Free Agency 2017: One trade every team should make
NBA free agency is about to open and the trade rumors are getting hot. Here is one trade that every NBA team should consider making.
The Finals are done, the Warriors have been coronated, and the draft just wrapped up. It’s time to look toward the future. The NBA machine has no off switch and the rumor mill now churns at full bore. A cavalcade of moves has already been consummated, including Minnesota’s heist of Jimmy Butler.
The pomp and circumstance of the offseason arguably make it the best part of the year, bringing about Twitter gems, #WojBombs, and the hope of exciting possibilities for every fan. No matter how meager your present is, salvation could come with one savvy trade. And let’s be honest, unless your favorite squad is a stanchion of continuity, shaking things up is the most fun aspect of the NBA.
Using my double-black belt in trade machine karate, I hypothesized deals that were fiscally compatible, mutually beneficial, and theoretically practical for all 30 teams. So take my hand, release the sails, and let the trade winds blow you from the safe harbor of complacency. See the move each team should make this summer. Just important to note, each of these trades exist independently within a vacuum of themselves.
Atlanta Hawks
Let’s start alphabetically with the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks are the very embodiment of “meh” on a basketball court. In a short time span, they transformed from an uninspiring also-ran, to Spurs East, back into first-round roadkill. Paul Millsap exercised his early termination option to escape the stagnation of a team muddling in mediocrity.
The good news for the Hawks is they only have about $65 million in salary commitments next season. The bad news is that $35 million of that is dedicated to just Kent Bazemore and newly-acquired Miles Plumlee. The best news is even though they lost their recent trade from a pure talent standpoint, they ridded themselves of Dwight Howard — which is an addition by subtraction.
That deal, which shipped Howard to Charlotte for essentially an order of Waffle House hash browns in return, signaled the Hawks are leaning into a rebuild. As a team going nowhere and a loaded draft on the horizon, it was a forward-thinking move.
At this point, they should go full tabula rasa to position themselves for a high draft pick and clear balance sheet. They need to find a partner that fancies themselves as an upgrade away from being a serious contender.
Atlanta would welcome back DeMarre Carroll to the place he blossomed and gets a chance to audition Bruno Caboclo. If you don’t remember Caboclo, he was famed on draft night 2014 as the Brazilian Kevin Durant, tabbed for being two years away from being two years away. If you’re the Hawks, this is precisely the type of player to roll the dice with, in hopes that a special talent can be cultivated with more floor time.
Toronto, assuming they get the band back together for another run at the Eastern Conference crown, replaces Carroll with Bazemore, a similar player who’s three years younger.