Love Hurts

It's been a quiet season, too quiet. Until now! In one day, Trieu has reshaped the entire direction of his team. His first move was an ultra doozy that shipped out Kevin Love and a 2014 RD1 (first pick protected) to Human Ameobas for DeMarcus Cousins, Monta Ellis, Andre Drummond, and a 2014 RD3 pick. The two former SlamNation champions faced off last during the 2011 Finals and now they find themselves partners in crime.

Since then, both teams have fallen on some hard times. The Sour Snails went 4-8 last season and hit rock bottom. This year they are 7-4 and leading the Silverhawks division, so they seem to have recovered well, especially after this fortifying trade. As for the Amoebas, they had a 9-10 record last season -- missing the playoffs during their championship defense -- but are winless so far this year and headed nowhere.

Wisely deciding to scrap the 2013 season, Eric-A moved for a top five fantasy stud. Let's look at if Kevin Love was worth the huge haul. Remember, Love was essentially traded for Lebron James back in 2010, so there was a lot at stake here for the Sour Snails, who patiently waited out the deluge of low ball offers. So far this season, there's no denying that Love has been a gigantic (injury) disappointment. However, in eighteen games he was still putting up 18.3 PTS, 14.0 REB, and 1.1 3PT. His FG% was atrocious, but that will recover when he's healthy. Love is the kind of foundational player that you can build a team around. You overpay for a guy like him.

Having said that, the Amoebas definitely overpaid by giving up a trio of very useful fantasy pieces. DeMarcus Cousins is already a fantasy beast, with 17.6 PTS, 10.2 REB, 1.4 STL and more upside. To celebrate his trade, Cousins put up the best game of his career last night -- 26 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks. Even though he has the field goal percentage of a streaky guard (43.4 FG%), that's a small price to pay for potential domination.

And we're all familiar with Monta Ellis' work. The guy scores at a good clip, swipes the ball, and provides more assists than you'd think. His FG% is horrific but that comes with the territory. And then there's Andre Drummond, whom we love. While the rook is only averaging 7.1 PTS and 7.3 REB a game this season, he's already fantasy relevant with 2.2 BLK over the past month. With only twenty plus minutes to do his work, we're already scared of the type of lines that Drummond is capable of in the future.

Losing these three players will definitely hurt the Amoebas but Eric-A is setting the table for a (hopefully) full season of Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Love next year. We love the Love trade, because you either go big or you go home, and Eric-A is all about championships. Fantasy wise, Love will now be the lone plus rebounder on the Amoebas, as there's nobody else on this squad capable of averaging double digit rebounds -- Paul Millsap is next best at about eight per game. Everyone else is at five or below. We'll be interested to see how Eric-A builds around Love's unique capabilities. Or if maybe he'll go with some sort of small ball.

Trieu's team started off as dominating semi-small ball squad -- outfitted with LBJ, Josh Smith, and Gerald Wallace to win tons of REB/BLK matchups -- and then transitioned into more of a normal small ball team over the years. The past few drafts have brought on Klay Thompson and Damian Lillard so we thought they'd tilt even more in that direction. However, the addition of Cousins and Drummond signals a shift to a more balanced approach. Clearly they'll have more BLK from Drummond -- Josh Smith will finally have a buddy to help protect the rim -- and together they could almost replace Love's rebounding. The Snails roster could see a few more tweaks, with the only thing we know for certain being that they will be punting FG%, as they are already dead last in that category.

Trieu's second move wasn't a blockbuster, but it was still interesting as the younger Danilo Gallinari was swapped for Jedi Knight's Metta World Peace. Part of us suspects this was purely to get a Laker on the Sour Snails but Metta has also been outright amazing the past month with 14.6 PTS, 6.4 REB, 2.0 3PT, 2.2 STL, and almost a block a game. World Peace has been unleashed by D'Antoni! Gallinari can match the PTS, REB, and 3PT numbers, but has no auxiliary stats to talk about. Still, he'll be a nice piece for Superlum's team as Metta's days are numbered -- just like the Lakers! [Ed. note: Opinion stricken from the record for extreme bias and too much giddiness.]

Reached for commentary during a break from sweating it out in the war room to plot his next move, Trieu said that he was basically looking to rid his team of the lighter skinned players. "White men can't jump, we all know that. Love and Gallo were good but they were holding our team back during the dunking warm ups, and making us look soft too. By taking on Cousins and Drummond, we just upped our crazy by 2000% and we'll also have World Peace on hand to mentor them. The Snails will either beat you on the court, or come at you somewhere else. You better watch out!"

We see a potential Andrew Bynum move coming, as there's no way that head case, ex-Laker, and cheap shot artist doesn't deserve to be on the Snails. [Ed. note: Stop that!]