It finally happened. James Harden was traded to the Brooklyn Nets for the Bucks' 2022 First and control of every single First the Nets have (3 outright ownership, 4 pick swap) from now until 2027, as well as Victor Oladipo, Dante Exum, and Rodions Kurucs. Cavs got Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen in exchange for Dante Exum and the Bucks' 2022 First, and the Pacers swapped Victor Oladipo for Caris Levert.
This trade might actually have been wins all around. Nets have a serious championship contender now, Rockets got a slew of picks and Oladipo for Harden, Cavs got their center of the future and a good wing for essentially just a late First, and the Pacers got a similar player with 2 extra years left on his contract.
Starting with the Nets, I was skeptical at first of how these three would fit, but the more I think about it, it could actually work. If you stagger the Big 3's minutes, you can make it so you never have to have less than two of them on the court at a time while simultaneously limiting how much time all three spend together at once. Harden averages around 36 minutes, Durant averages 35, and Kyrie averages around 33. Combined that equals 104 minutes. Taking into account that two positions each of 48 minutes equals 96, then that only leaves 8 minutes where all three share the court together. The other 40 minutes includes just two of the three. There are only four combinations, Kyrie/Harden, Kyrie/Durant, Harden/Durant, and Kyrie/Harden/Durant. Considering this team will always have at least two of the best creators in the world on the floor at any given time, they might be best utilized by running iso or spread pick and roll every single time down the floor. I'm serious. In order to get everyone enough shots, and to fully maximize the talent on this roster, it honestly might be their best option to have every single half-court set have either an isolation or spread pick and roll. Harden and Kyrie are great at pick and roll, and Harden and Durant are both great at isolation, so if the minutes are properly staggered, you'll always have the choice of whether to do one or the other. I also think that there's a chance that this actually happens and the Nets simply don't run any set plays considering this team is coached by Steve Nash and Mike D'antoni, and Nash seems to lean towards D'antoni's style of coaching.
The Cavs did something good. They found their center of the future, and got him for a cheap price. Allen and Prince for Exum and the Bucks' pick. Jarrett Allen should be great on this team. He's a great defender and is surprisingly good on offense. He's averaged 11ppg each of the last three years but with increasing efficiency each year. This year he's up to 73% TS%, which is absolutely ridiculous, but that's not the most insane part. Allen is averaging 5.4 FGAs per game, and 5.1 FTAs per game. That ratio is absolutely insane. His free throw rate, which is just FTA/FGA, is at .938, which is the highest mark in the league by a wide margin. The difference between 1st and 2nd is bigger than the difference between 2nd and 11th. He's in a class of his own with foul-drawing. That mark is the highest the league has seen since the Hack-A-Shaq rules were changed after the 2016 season. He's also hitting his free throws too, making 75% of them, 1% below league average.
Allen doesn't do much creating for himself, but he is very good at finishing plays with absurd efficiency, something this team was needing badly from the center position. Combined with his good defense and young age, this appears to be the guy the Cavaliers want to be rolling with for the long term. The only problem is that they didn't trade away any of the centers that were already on the roster. Drummond and McGee are both on one year deals that expire with the conclusion of this season, but there is still 60 games to be played and this roster includes Allen, Drummond, and McGee, three guys that all play one position. There's also a logjam at power forward with Nance, Love, and also possibly Prince, depending on where he plays. This team just needs to move on from their frontcourt veterans entirely. Love no longer fits, and either Drummond or McGee simply can't get minutes on this team. Trades need to be made, simple as that. I'm still mad that the Hornets cut Nic Batum, because his large expiring contract would've been great to trade either Love or Drummond for. Considering how large Drummond's contract is for this year, it might be easier to either trade or cut McGee and bench Drummond. However, that still doesn't solve the problem of what to do when Love comes back. I've said it before, but I just want expiring contracts in exchange for Love at this point. To make a long story short, there is no way this is our last significant roster move regarding our bigs.
The Pacers essentially got a slightly worse player with two extra years left on his contract in return for Oladipo. I'm not high on either Oladipo or Levert, but it does look like a decent move for Indiana. I also don't really care about the Rockets perspective on the trade, they got a bunch of future picks that don't mean anything right now and a player in Oladipo that has already said he doesn't want to be in Houston and would rather be in Miami. One interesting thing, though, is the recent trend or how many picks star players are worth now. Just two years ago, Daryl Morey offered 4 firsts to Minnesota in exchange for Jimmy Butler. That trade never went through, but it was seen as a huge offer. The offseason after that was the Paul George trade, and that was the trade that really opened the floodgates for the amount of picks that could be included in a single trade. That trade had 5 firsts and 3 pick swaps, the most picks we've ever seen in a single trade. However, the Clippers viewed that as trading for both PG and Kawhi, since Kawhi wouldn't sign without the Clippers trading for PG. The rest of the league has seemed to forget that though. Gone are the days of the Celtics refusing to give up a first for Tyreke Evans putting up 19-5-5 on average efficiency. The asking price for players in terms of picks has skyrocketed. Since the PG trade, we've seen Westbrook traded for two firsts and two pick swaps on top of CP3, Jrue Holiday get traded for three firsts and two pick swaps, Robert Covington get traded for two firsts, the Thunder get a first in every trade they participate in, and now the Rockets getting four firsts and four pick swaps for Harden. Anthony Davis was also traded a month before the Paul George trade for three firsts, one of them being fourth overall, and multiple valuable prospects. Picks are being thrown around like they're nothing, making any team a contender to trade for a superstar if they have all their picks and decide to pull the trigger. It'll be interesting to see the asking price on players moving forward, and the next man up appears to be Bradley Beal.
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