More NBA Trades and their Fantasy Impact: Part 2

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Bobcats, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, Player News, Portland Trail Blazers, Trades
Posted on: February 24th, 2011

Gerald Wallace to the Blazers

After a lot of not-so-secret talk about moving Gerald Wallace before the deadline, the Charlotte Bobcats were able to get a deal done with the Blazers. The trade sends Wallace to Portland for Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham, Sean Marks and two first round picks.

Wallace is a nice get for the Blazers (who were willing to take on his salary) and he should enter the starting lineup, pushing Nicolas Batum to the bench. Batum obviously loses a lot of fantasy value from this trade, but stash him for now just to see how bad it will be. Wallace will also probably see a slight drop in minutes from the 39 he was getting with Charlotte. Even with all their injuries, the Blazers are still a deeper team than the Bobcats. Overall, a neutral to slight negative move for Wallace.

The return of Brandon Roy will also squeeze minutes from Wesley Matthews and probably kills Rudy Fernandez’s value as well, although that’s not directly related to this trade.

Gerald Henderson is the main benefactor for the Bobcats. He was already playing well before the All-Star break (averaging 18 points and 5 rebounds over his last three games) and the trade could open a starting spot for him at SG. Grab him especially in deep leagues. Meanwhile, Przybilla will split time at the center position with Kwame Brown to form the most hilarious one-two punch since Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo sang Ebony & Ivory.

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Jeff Green to the Celtics and Kendrick Perkins to the Thunder

In what could be the strangest trade of the deadline, Danny Ainge shook up a Celtics’ team that did not need to be shaken up by trading away Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Thunder for Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic and a first-round draft pick. (In a separate deal, he also sent Luke Harangody and Semih Erden to the Cavs for a second-round pick). It’s possibly a cost-cutting move for the Celtics with the 2011 CBA negotiations looming, although it still has the stink of panic all over it.

I do like Perkins, but let’s not get too crazy about his potential. He’s a decent defensive-minded center who you can go to war with when he’s actually healthy. Not surprisingly though, Perkins is currently out with a strained MCL. When he returns to the court he’ll become the Thunder’s starting center and should see a bump in minutes (and fantasy value as a result) compared to his role on the Celtics.

Serge Ibaka is a huge winner in this trade. He’ll be free to start at PF without Green getting in his way and will put up some impressive rebound/block numbers. In 18 starts this season, Ibaka has averaged 9.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. Expect him to improve on those numbers now that he’s the team’s clear starter.

Green will presumably backup KG at PF for the Celtics and improves their second unit, but his value takes a big hit with this trade. A lot of Green’s fantasy value on the Thunder came from the sheer number of minutes he played (37 a game this season). Green will be hard pressed to play 30 minutes a game on the Celtics unless KG gets hurt and as a result his counting stats are in for a big hit. Dump him now if you can.

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The Rockets Sell Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier

Long ago, the Rockets threw all their apples into one basket and strapped that basket to the back of Yao Ming. Needless to say that basket didn’t make it very far and, as a result, the Rockets are finally beginning to dismantle their mediocre team with a couple of trades today.

The first trade saw the Rockets send their disgruntled PG Aaron Brooks to the Phoenix Suns in return for PG Goran Dragic and a first-round pick. Brooks was all kinds of pissed with the team for not getting a contract extension before the start of the season and then losing his starting job to Kyle Lowry after he got injured this past November.

Brooks is the Suns long-term plan at the point, but he will back up Steve Nash for the rest of this season. The Suns’ blog Desert Dirt has a nice analysis of Brooks and basically finds him to be a bit overrated as a player; a guy who takes a lot of shots despite not being an efficient shooter and someone who finished 39th in the league among PGs in assist rate. Check back in when Nash is done and out.

The big winner from this trade is Kyle Lowry, who is now free to play without one eye looking behind his back at all times. Lowry is still going to be a streaky player and a craptastic shooter, but now we don’t have to worry about him losing his job to Aaron Brooks after every game.

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The Rockets’ second trade has Shane Battier returning to the Memphis Grizzlies (along with Ishmael Smith) for uber-project Hasheem Thabeet, DeMarre Carroll and a protected first round pick.

Clearly, the Grizzlies were going to have none of Tony Allen at SF while Rudy Gay is injured and possibly out the rest of the season. Instead, Battier will slide into the starting SF spot and should do more or less what he’s done on the Rockets as long as Gay is out. Allen should still get some run off the bench for the Grizzlies and is worth owning in deep leagues, but the upside is gone with Battier in town. I’d expect Sam Young to retain most of his value if he continues to start at SG.

Chase Budinger, our waiver wire player of the day, should inherent Battier’s starting job and makes for a great pickup in most leagues. Great Budinger stat according to Yahoo Sports – he’s averaged 16.4 points, 1.7 threes, 5.1 boards, 2.2 assists in games where he’s played more than 25 minutes. That’s like a slightly better version of Mike Dunleavy, back when he had two thumbs that worked. Courtney Lee could also see some time there, although he’s a little undersized for the SF spot.

Some people are jumping on Terrence Williams now that Battier is gone. Let’s see him actually crack the rotation before starting up that bandwagon.

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Tags: Aaron Brooks, Gerald Wallace, Jeff Green, Kendrick Perkins, Shane Battier