Witness to Change

It's been a pretty quiet first few weeks of the season and as fantasy football winds down, we had a gigantic bomb drop into the SlamNation world. Lebron James is taking his talents to Nande? ReBuRonSAN! I don't know what the hell that means in Japanese but I'm betting it could translate well to "I got the King bitches!"

We've had some major blockbusters in our young history but nothing quite like this. The top overall pick moved from the Chamberlain to Russell Conference. This trade between Squirtle Squad and Nande, the two best regular season teams last year, proves that even winners can't sit on their laurels and just count their money. Along with Lebron James, Trieu is moving Gerald Wallace and Hakim Warrick to Mikey for Gilbert Arenas, Stephen Jackson, and Kevin Love. Keep in mind this is the second trade between these two teams this season. Do we smell corroboration here? Or is it just two savvy GMs making moves that nobody else dares? Before we delve into the specifics of the trade, let's take a look at what prompted this huge move.

Nande has been off to a horrible start this season. After a 5-4 victory over the Human Amoebas to start the season, they've lost four in a row, with no more than three categories won each time. Ranking last in FG%, sixth in REB, low in PTS, AST, STL, and second to last in BLK, Nande's only team strength has been superior outside shooting, which helped them rank first in 3PT. Sitting in dead last in the Thundercats division, Mikey didn't hesitate to make a Riley-esque splash.

Why the move for Trieu though? After romping through the league last season, we thought the Snails would never move their dynamic trio of Lebron, Wallace, and Josh Smith. They got off to another hot start, winning four games in convincing fashion, but then suffered an embarassing 3-5-1 loss last week to Human Amoebas, who were the worst team in the league last year. Perhaps that served as the wake up call. As we've alluded to, the Sour Snails are a very strange small ball team. They are mostly outside shooters, but with James, Wallace, and Smith, they can regularly compete in the REB and BLK categories. However, if a team could over power them down low, the Snails were susceptible to their big three's free throw shooting woes. Lebron is a career 74.4% FT shooter, and Wallace (71.4%) and especially Smith (66.9%) aren't exactly eagle eyes from the charity stripe. That weakness left them a bit vulnerable during certain matchups.

While we were initially a little skeptical of this trade, after looking at the numbers and talking to team sources, it looks like a huge win win across the board. For example, the Snails get a huge upgrade in FT% and 3PT, plus a significant uptick in REB and even a bit of a kick in STL and PTS. They are worse in FG% and TO after this trade, but those weren't categories they were looking to win anyway. Let's take a look at what these guys are averaging so far during the 2011 season.

What jumps out at you right away is the decline of Wallace, who is no longer the All Star player he was last year. The huge jump of Kevin Love to an extreme 20 PTS, 15 REB player was obviously the key to this trade. He can match James and Wallace's rebound numbers, freeing Trieu to play two more streaky shooters, which is actually more befitting his style. We're a little wary of Arenas' role and injury history, but at his worst, Gilbert is an offensive powerhouse. On Nande's side, well, he got Lebron. Having an all around stud like LBJ means that Mikey now has a franchise cornerstone to build around. While he paid a heavy price -- especially since Hakim Warrick is almost waiver wire fodder -- we love this forward thinking move for both teams. Quality analysis, big cajones, and we have the first blockbuster of the year. What's next? Which owners will step up to shake their teams out of the doldrums?

Let the trading season begin!