Smooth Move

There, we go! A five player blockbuster mid-season as we head into the NBA All Star Break: Dirk Nowitzki and Jamal Crawford for Jeff Green, Derrick Favors, and Darren Collison. (We knew last week’s trade article would get the wheels cranking somewhere.) This swap is very exciting as it represents the perfect trade of need for need.

Eron, Joven and Chandler came out strong this season at 5-2 and are now the third best team in Chamberlain Conference with a 9-5 record. Lucas is headed to his first playoff showing as a new-ish owner and he's clearly ready to make some waves in the post-season. On the other hand, rookie SlamNation owner Trevor has seen his Inept Henchmen sink to 4-9-1 after losing franchise superstar Derrick Rose for the year and he’s got no use for his aging veterans. By flipping Dirk Nowitzki for younger pieces, Trevor is setting his sights on a brighter future. Let’s take a closer look at how this trade affects each team.

For EJC, they’ll get Dirk’s 22.0 PTS, 6.2 REB, 1.6 3PT, and excellent shooting numbers. Nowitzki may be old, but he’s at over 27.8 ppg for the past month and incredibly, that’s just the third highest number on this team after Carmelo Anthony and Blake Griffin. Add in Jamal Crawford’s 18.3 PTS and we don’t see how EJC doesn’t vault from #6 in PTS to near the top after this trade — especially when Nick Young returns from injury.

All those buckets are necessary because Ricky Rubio, Enes Kanter, and whoever the backup big man is on this team aren’t big scorers. Crawford’s 2.3 3PT will help here too, as that was an area of need for EJC. All this at the cost of Derrick Favors’ solid big man numbers. Favors is in the middle of a breakout campaign and he’s averaging a solid near double double with 13.5 PTS, 9.3 REB, 1.3 BLK, 1.0 STL. Those numbers will only go up as he matures and his departure leaves EJC with nobody averaging more than 0.7 BLK, and now opponents will head straight to the rim.

For Inept Henchmen, Favors is the perfect big to complement Andrew Bogut and Kenneth Faried. His big REB numbers are a welcome addition for a team ranked dead last in rebounds. And for all of Jeff Green’s inconsistency — there’s a reason he’s been moved twice in one year so far — he is a versatile weapon averaging 16.3 PTS, 5.0 REB, 1.6 3PT. It was hoped that he would be better than 0.6 STL/BLK but those numbers should climb. Trading a thirty five year old Dirk for a twenty seven year old Green isn’t too bad. Trade throw in Darren Collison has been dropping dimes in Chris Paul’s absence but it looks like CP3 will return shortly, curtailing Collison’s value. Still, if Collison can throw in some AST/STL, he'll be an upgrade over the current lead guards on the roster, who aren't really point guards at all. (Hi Mo Williams and Iman Shumpert!)

From what we can tell, Eron, Joven and Chandler, a playoff contender just moved themselves up a notch by pushing a previously middling category (PTS) over the top by sacrificing some youth and numbers in categories that they weren’t winning anyway (BLK and to a lesser extent REB). And for Inept Henchmen, they now have a better collection of young pieces to move forward with, while still remaining competitive for the Toilet Bowl. When Derrick Rose returns, he’ll have some young guns to run with, plus a new big man in the middle. Win win!