Winners:
1. Orlando Magic - Along with the passing of the trade deadline, Dwight Howard decided to waive the option to opt out of the final year of his contract. For the Magic, this not only means that Dwight should be there for the rest of this season, but also next season. Anson believes that with all this extra time, the Magic should be able to either find a better package to trade Howard for or find better pieces to the puzzle that will ultimately convince Dwight to stay.
2. Golden State Warriors - Despite trading the closest thing the Warriors' had to an all-star, the Warriors acquired a very solid big man in the big Aussie, Andrew Bogut (who, when healthy is a top 5 center in the league), and another solid front court player in Richard Jefferson and a 1st round draft pick. The biggest reason why I have the Warriors as winners isn't even because of the fact that they got the players that they did, but more so because they got rid of Stephen Jackson! How great is that?! Also with the dismissal of Monta Ellis, the Warriors' first-round pick (Klay Thompson) should be starting now for the Warriors and see a significant increase in playing time. Thompson has started and played about forty minutes each game - averaging 19 points in each of those four starts.
3. Ramon Sessions - Ramon Sessions was traded on Thursday afternoon to the Lakers from the lowly Cavs. Sessions should be grateful that he doesn't have to play for one of the worst teams in the league anymore, and now has the opportunity to play for a potential contender as well as play with the Black Mamba. Sessions is a HUGE improvement over Fisher and Blake and should fit well with the Lakers.
4. Indiana Pacers - The Pacers have been playing well as of late, but the acquisition of the Brazilian Blur, Leandro Barbosa, should help add depth and experience to this young Pacer squad. The Pacers only had to rid themselves of a 2nd round draft pick to acquire the former Sixth Man of the Year. With both Barbosa and George Hill coming off the bench, this team should be the fear of any team in the first round (similar to the Grizzlies just a season ago).
5. LA Clippers - Anson loves the Nick Young trade to the Clippers. Young should bring energy and offense off the bench for the Clips as well as more athleticism. More athleticism means more dunks. More dunks means more highlights. And more highlights means... well... who doesn't love highlights? Chris Paul should be able to keep him on a leash and discipline him so that he won't jack up shots the way he does.
Losers:
1. Derek Fisher - After playing for the championship caliber, Lakers for 13 seasons, poor man, Fisher man was traded to the Houston Rockets who might not even make the playoffs this year. Luckily, the Rockets just bought out his contract. So perhaps he'll get to return to the city of angels, but I don't quite see why the Lakers would really want him anyways.
2. New Jersey Nets - After not getting Dwight Howard in any sort of trade deal, the Nets seem to maybe have lost everything. Not getting Howard means that they probably won't get Deron Williams back either. The move for Gerald Wallace was a desperate attempt to momentarily try to appease Williams hoping that he'll stay, but he won't. Williams will probably sign with Dallas or even Orlando where he'll have a legitimate chance to win a ring with either Dirk or Dwight.
3. JaVale McGee's Mom - McGee seemed like the big man the Wizards were going to center their front court around, but after being traded that won't happen. McGee was publicly embarrassed by his mom when she said that he's the perfect player to build a team around. Right... about that...
4. Portland Trail Blazers - After the Portland Trail Blazers traded Gerald Wallace, firing Nate McMillan, and getting rid of pretty much everyone else associated with the Brandon Roy era of Blazer basketball (with the exception of LaMarcus Aldridge), the Blazers have made it very clear that they want to blow this team up. They've released Greg Oden and traded for a bunch of expiring contracts. You could say that it's good that the Blazers realized that they're not going to win with the team they had so they blew it up and started over, but it's going to be a long while before they return to the contention they had enjoyed over the past few years.
Sorry for posting a little late, but my computer hasn't been able to access Google for the past few days, which didn't let me sign into blogger and publish this post and well... yeah. But as always, thanks for reading. It's greatly appreciated.
